Vacation

It's that time. I'm going off for a week of beers and beaches so I won't be posting, but maybe I'll contemplate on some awesome topic to come back with. Have a good week internets.

Blarrg Review: inFamous

Well, it’s a bit late, but here’s my shocking (har har) review of inFamous.

It’s a well-known fact that I love me some super heroes. Something about the super hero mythos is just so damned appealing. I also love video games. Thus far, I have yet to find a super hero game that fully encompasses my love for crusaders by delivering an experience that really feels as though I’m walking in a crime fighter’s boots. Enter Sucker Punch’s inFamous, an open world, super hero (or villain) game that puts you in command of Cole MacGrath, your average bike messenger turned super dude at the outset of the game.

What Works:

For starters, Cole’s powers are cool. The ability to essentially force push fools into the air and then blast them with lighting from the palm of your hand is always rewarding no matter how many times you do it. And you will do it A LOT. Enemies are smart enough to put up a good fight, so you never feel overpowered, even when you’re doing things like summoning huge lightning storms and lobbing electro grenades.

The environments that you transverse look really great, and the atmosphere found around the city is very convincing. You can’t help but feel a certain need to defend the city and it’s people from would be attackers and terrorists. Unless of course you don’t, and then you can lightning everyone you see right in the face. Yes, inFamous allows you to choose your path and shape your character based on morality choices presented to you in several moments of the game. You can disarm a bomb by letting it blow up whilst you absorb the damage, or you can zap some poor schlub off the street and make him do it. This affects what powers you earn, how the citizens react to you, and how the story plays out. Which leads me to…

What Doesn’t Work:

InFamous’ story is borderline non-existent, and the parts that are there hardly make any sense. This is the game’s biggest flaw, as most super hero tales are narrative driven. The characters are either boring to the point that you aren’t really sure who’s who by the end of the game, or obnoxious, Cole’s best buddy Zeke being the worst offender.

Also, for a game so huge, it’s rather difficult to get around the city. Yes you can grind electrical wires, and upgrade to a hover move, but those don’t help much. Rooftop travel is the way to go, but you always wind up on the street level having to climb all the way back up, which takes too long. Don’t even get me started on chase missions.

And while the story missions contain some moments that make you truly proud to be a gamer, the side missions are repetitive and weak, a la Spiderman 2 (read, the same 10 missions, over and over, scattered about the city).

Bottom Line:

Overall, inFamous’ good aspects match it’s bad and when it’s good it’s awesome, but when it’s bad, it’s frustrating at best. It warrants a play through if you’re a fan of the open world/ shooter genre, plus it wouldn’t hurt you to dust of your PS3 for an exclusive.

WTF?

Hey, Gamestop, what drugs are you guys on? I need some.

WII BUNDLES!!!!!!

East meets West.

It's the 21st century. Why can't I have a JRPG that allows me to fully customize my character's armor and weapons? Sure there have been small steps towards that, such as a new piece of armor offering a new skin, but I want full customization. Like an Elder Scrolls level of choice. But I want it on my JRPG. And why have JRPGs become so easy? Not in combat or puzzles, but in items? Why must there be a particular upgrade for a certain character's weapon? I want to have to choose. Maybe one sword has a fire bonus, but another sword does more flat damage? But I really need all of this in turn based combat. Classic turn based combat. I apologize, I've been replaying Final Fantasy 6 lately and that's truly the pinnacle of the RPG genre.

Maybe a turn based Diablo game would be pretty sweet. Plenty of loot options, and great skill trees to work your way through. That sounds like a blast to me.